London: British detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are looking for a lone intruder who sexually abused five girls during break-ins at holiday homes in Portugal.

The tanned, dark-haired man is suspected of breaking in to 12 properties where British families were staying in the Algarve between 2004 and 2010.

In five of the incidents, girls aged between seven and 10 years were sexually assaulted.

Final photo: British girl Madeleine McCann before she went missing from a Portuguese holiday complex. Photo: AP

These attacks happened between 2004 and 2006, before Madeleine vanished in 2007.

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Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said tracing the man, said to have "an unhealthy interest in young white female children", was one of his priority lines of inquiry.

His team has 38 people classed as "persons of interest" to the inquiry, and is also sifting through details of 530 known sex offenders whose whereabouts cannot be accounted for.

Of those, 59 are classed as high priority, and some are British.

Madeleine went missing from her bedroom days before her fourth birthday in 2007 at the Praia da Luz holiday resort in the Algarve while her parents were dining with friends at a nearby restaurant, leading to a global search that gripped the world's media.

The McCanns have led a six-year campaign to find Madeleine, who they believe was kidnapped and is still alive.

An unnamed source told the Daily Mirror that the couple were "on tenterhooks" as they wait for further developments.